Posted on 06/08/2005 11:26:52 AM PDT by newgeezer
Washington, D.C. Leading up to Memorial Day, with the support of Iowa Congressman Steve King, the House Judiciary Committee passed a Constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to make it a crime to burn the American flag.
Although almost eighty percent of Americans support a Constitutional amendment banning desecration of the American flag, in 1989 and 1990 the Supreme Court ruled that laws passed by Congress violated the First Amendment. Passing a constitutional amendment is the only way to protect the American flag from acts of desecration.
Our Founding Fathers would have never imagined the need for an amendment to the Constitution like this, said King. They fought so hard to be able to display the American flag, and they did so proudly. This Memorial Day weekend, we must remember all of those who fought for our country and this flag. Its not just patriotic to want to protect this flag, but our duty as Americans.
This flag has led the way into battle, been planted on the moon and draped the coffins of Americans who have sacrificed their lives for our county. It was raised at Iwo Jima and in the debris at Ground Zero. It is the symbol of freedom to everyone in the world, added King.
H.J. Res. 10, the Flag Protection Amendment, will need to be passed by two-thirds of the full House and Senate and be ratified by three-fourths of the states to become law. The amendment has been passed by the House with more than the two-thirds majority needed in the past five Congresses. In addition, all 50 state legislatures have petitioned Congress to approve a flag protection amendment and send it to them for ratification. The amendment has been considered in the Senate twice in the last five Congresses, and both times it failed to garner the two-thirds majority needed.
Ain't that amazing?
According to some here, those 50 legislative bodies, the expression of their states' electoral will, are made up of a bunch of Nazi freedom-haters.
Up until this thread, I was rather ambivalent about this issue, but now I think I'm leaning towards supporting the amendment.
An excellent point, and one worth repeating. What these proposed amendments do to the Constitution is much more offensive than what a couple idiots do with their own flags.
If this amendment passed, you would still not have to reverence the flag. You could still despise it all you wish. You just wouldn't be legally allowed to desecrate it as a public act.
Same thing - it's the love of a symbol greater than that for what the symbol represents.
a couple times. over a campfire, with all of us standing in silence. i was told this is the proper way to dispose of a flag that had spent its life being prodly displayed and had become worn and slightly tattered.
I may have the right to burn my flag, but I certainly don't have the right to burn your flag.
I would love to see the exact wording of this proposed amendment.
Yes, the picture is pretty (although I prefer the other one you posted above). What's the point?
Are you implying that I don't love my flag, because I love what it represents even more?
Read into it whatever you will.
I mean, after all, I just posted a symbol, right?
Then perhaps I should rephrase. Enforcing public respect and specific treatment for national symbols is the mark of a tolitarian government, not a democratic republic. So far, while we have a U.S. Flag Code that defines how one should treat the flag, there are no criminal penalties for violating it. There's no need to change that. I see no reason why anyone should not feel free to publicly desecrate the flag, anymore than people should not be free to publicly desecrate the Bible or a Qu'ran or a copy of the Vedas.
That would be odd, wouldn't it, that one couldn't burn a flag but one could burn a Bible?
Yes it would.
Actually, if you read the U.S. Flag Code (which prescribes how to treat the American flag but has no criminal penalties attached), American flag shirts are illegal. So is incorporating the American flag or parts thereof into any article of clothing, except for uniforms of patriotic organizations. The latter would include, for example, the Boy Scouts, police, the military, etc., but would not include football teams, etc. I would think that Olympic teams would be exempt from that, as they represent the United States directly.
Yes, legally defining "desecration" would enrich a lot of lawyers.
When I was in college and anti-hate-speech codes were proposed, I opposed them on the grounds that this way, we know who the assholes are.
Exactly. Would you make it a crime for me to delete that symbol from my hard drive?
Both. But the first act is not the cause of the second. In fact, the first act actually aids in identifying them as a threat and thus makes it easier to defend those realities, which are far more important than the symbol.
Exactly!
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